John's Arcade Forum - Classic Arcade and Pinball Collecting and Restoring Discussion Forum - RETRO MAME - Nintendo Vs Forum

Sup Peeps? I'm looking for a fun and affordable Pin for myself and my Dad.. Here is my current list of interest... Let me know what you think (I am not at all interested in The Addams Family or other cheesy film related themed machines, regardless of how good you may feel the game is or its popularity within the Pin community):

1. Gottlieb TX-Sector (family friend of mine had one growing up, i enjoyed it, my Dad enjoyed it, sounds are fabulous, visuals and audio match theme, watched some YouTube reviews lately to refresh my memory and it seems like a great machine compared to a lot of Williams or Bally machines that re-use game sounds in Pins that dont even have similar themes (Black Knight, Gorgar) OR use NEW sounds in Pins where they should have reused game sounds (Pac-Man)... IMO I shouldnt be experiencing Defender or Robotron while playing Black Knight or Firepower...)

http://youtu.be/Nic1q-IgHR0 (http://youtu.be/Nic1q-IgHR0)


2. Pinbot (seems like a great game, never played, love design, theme and audio, audio seems not to suffer from Defender overload)

http://youtu.be/L_In6OalrTc (http://youtu.be/L_In6OalrTc)


3. Bride of Pinbot (sideart is awesome, sounds are good, kind of reminds me of the villain in Species; which obviously reminds me of Geiger; which is never a bad thing... i could see the objectives getting repetitive but, that also makes it enjoyable in a way)

http://youtu.be/Z_sgIkMkgyQ (http://youtu.be/Z_sgIkMkgyQ)


4. Xenon (looks and sounds pretty awesome, maybe a little lacking?)

http://youtu.be/bkH8QFjVqnk (http://youtu.be/bkH8QFjVqnk)


5. Elektra (love the art, 3 levels is cool, ambient sound is about the same annoyance level as Embryon but I feel like the playfield and game design is way better - Embryon seems a little bare for a wide body)

http://youtu.be/7eWuAteETzQ (http://youtu.be/7eWuAteETzQ)


Thats all I can think of right now... I'll let you guys know if I remember or find another one... Thanks for any feedback... LATE!

sounds like youd be fine with any 80s made solid state machine. just depends on how much you want to spend and what kind of condition machine you are looking for.

No but see thats my point... I WOULDN'T because after doing all my research and playing, a lot of the machines aren't really good or have sci-fi sound design in a fantasy cabinet, like Black Knight or Gorgar for example... Even Firepower is like that cuz it just sounds like Defender... The sound in the Williams games ruins a lot of their designs IMO because of this...

There's a reason my list has only 4 Pins...

Embryon has an annoying repetitive looping hum sound or I would probably like it...

Anyway... I'm still looking...

for me, bride of pinbot would be out because of the shitty scoring (the billion point shot) just makes it no-fun.

xenon sound drives me insane.

tx sector is fun.

for me I'd be looking at

fathom, centaur, high speed, sorceror, space shuttle, paragon, etc

gorgar + firepower are fantastic pins. great playing. gorgar's sound is phenomenal. its a product of its era. gorgar was ground breaking. it was 1979!

it sounds like your expecting far more than these machines ever had.

Ok I think Im gonna add Elektra to my list...

Great! thanks for adding some for me to look at... In all fairness youre probably right, Im probably expecting better in certain instances... but I feel like some things are obvious flaws and bad decision making... Gorgar is beautiful and I get the date it was released, but now I dont know if I would want one as my primary machine... I plan on only having 1 Pin for a few years...

I could see that... The constant moaning is a little obnoxious... And I also end uo having a lot of explaining to do to my gf's 12 yr old daughter.... LOL! But thats life...

for me I'd be looking at


Centaur looked ok, Ill check it out again... High Speed I'll look a again too but I was kind of Meh on both of those... The others I need o check out...

Right now Im really digging Elektra... but I dont know about that bg electrical noise constantly...

Fathom looks like a great game, may add that to my list...

Centaur looks like a good alternative/back up to my current list...

High Speed is ok... but even though Im a speed ticket king and have a fun car and love driving... its a boring theme when so many cool creative games are available...

Sorceror - AGAIN, sounds like Im playing Defender + every shooter combined... Dont get it... But it LOOKS beautiful...

Space Shuttle - its ok... same sounds in every machine... kinda boring art and playfied..

Paragon - Beautiful machine... but even my dad will think its slow and boring...

I was also looking at F-14 Tomcat... Not sure if I'd really want to OWN one but it seems like a fun game... I know of one I can get too, but I like the others in my list more...

I think you have some VERY unrealistic expectations about sound in early 80s pins.

if you think BOP is going to be boring and repetative, welcome to the pins pre dmd. everything on your list is going to be boring and repetative.

so.. to you

paragon is boring, space shuttle is boring, high speed is boring? holy shit dude.

good luck in your search, because what you want does not exist. 

I've already named machines I like, so they do exist... But yes, I think most aren't really spectacular...

And BOP I listed as one of my picks actually but just commented that it really has 1 main shot concept that could get old but the overall design and sounds are great so it's easy to over look...

i didnteven know about the 1,000,000,000 oint shot youre referring to that i guess probably completes the game... sounds interesting...

Did you end up picking anything up? It sounds like you're looking for a combination of original theme and gameplay (Even though you're crazy to dismiss High Speed for theme or Paragon for being a widebody). I agree BOP's billion point shot makes it a crappy game, I'm not even too mad that it's a single-shot game. Centaur is probably the best combination of original "non-boring" theme, amazing art, and gameplay out of the ones you've listed. Pin-Bot is pretty cool but I always think it's hard to recommend since Jack-Bot is an entirely better game IMO.

Well, I had to pass on a Xenon unfortunately but i found the perfect machine for my dad... A Bally/Midway "Special Force"! My dad is a Marine and did a tour in Vietnam... Since I was primarily getting a pin for him, after seeing this, I was like YEAHHHHHH!!! It's actually a really fun game and has some great features... I'm doing a lot of work to it, and the parts should be here in a week or so... Here's a link to a vid:

http://youtu.be/kWaOmfbu_xQ?list=PLg35dZwhHDh2hNO89709wGC-lsicjF-FS (http://youtu.be/kWaOmfbu_xQ?list=PLg35dZwhHDh2hNO89709wGC-lsicjF-FS)

I think he'll really get a lot of enjoyment out of it.... We'll have hours of fun playing it and I'm sure he'll play while im playing DK or Pac!

your list is very interesting.  we all have different things that float out boat.  DMD or alphanumeric.  to me it just depends on the game.  to me it boils down to if i think the game is fun.  I have a BoP and i like it.  i like it because it is fun theme and is simple.  not every game has to be super challenging.  Centaur is a fun game  you will pay a good price for a nice one.  gorgar is easy to find.  xenon is cool looking.  i think it has an infinity backglass.  (space invaders pin has the same type of glass in it.)  I love Black Knight 2000.  the music rocks and everyone that comes over plays that game.  i would suggest downloading pinball arcade.  some of the games you have listed are on there.